Story+1985-09-27+Los+Angeles,+CA

”We were on, uh....the first part of our American tour.....we were down in Houston, Texas.....and there was a lotta folks down.....from up north, from northeast.....outta Pittsburgh....Youngstown....outta Detroit.....Gary....who’d moved down south..... looking for work in the oil fields, in the oil rigs....and when they got down there, the price of oil dropped.....they’d be laying them off, they’d be down there with their wives and kids..... you’d see them sleeping out on the side of the highway at night in their cars....or in tents.... with no place to go, nothing to do....but move on....this is called ‘Seeds’....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Seeds’:**

”How ya doing out there tonight ? (cheers)....it’s good to see you....again....hope we didn’t....keep you waiting too long, we wanted to....wait till most of youse could beat the traffic that’s on the way out here....ah......oh....this is uh....when I was growing up, my dad used to play this trick on me....he used to lock up the frontdoor.....so I used to have to come through the side....and he’d sit in the kitchen waiting on me....smoking a cigarette... and uh.....I’d stand out there in the driveway.....and I used to have a real long hair, like way down to my shoulders....and he used to hate it, you know, we used to fight about it all the time....and uh....I’d stand there and I’d get my collar up and I’d tuck it back as tight as I could....trying to make it look as short as it would....and I’d get up my nerve and I’d get up on the porch.....and he’d always let me get through the kitchen....and he’d always let me get through the livingroom....my mom’d be sleeping on the couch in front of the T.V.....and then just as I got my foot on that bottom step, thinking like ‘I made it, I’m gonna get to my room’.....from the kitchen I’d hear ‘Bruuuce’ (crowd bruuces).... didn’t sound that nice, though, at the time (chuckles) ....and uh.....he used to call me back and I’d....come in the kitchen and I’d sit down with him and we’d be sitting in the dark and I remember the thing that used to bother me was that I could never see him..... and he wouldn’t say nothing for the next ten or fifteen minutes.....and then he’d ask me, like the same old question.....what I thought I was doing with myself.....and uh....I guess the worst part about it was that I was never able to explain it to him.....I couldn’t explain to him why I looked the way I did.....it was like that old song that said about trying to tell a stranger....about rock and roll....but uh.....that’s kind of a two-way street because I didn’t know what he was doing with himself either....I didn’t understand....at the time, I guess, I was about 17 or 18 and he was probably only.....only about a year or two older than I am right now.....and I couldn’t understand the pressure of trying to raise a family....looking for work.....and feeling like....feeling like you were failing at it......we came down from.... (?) Valley in Pittsburgh at the beginning of this tour where they’re....shutting all the steel mills down.....like they’re doing here in East Los Angeles, just like they did.....and uh...... what do you do when the jobs go away but the people remain ?.....when communities begin to disappear.....and families fall apart.....and you end up living.....in the shadow of a dream.....and that’s what this song is about.....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘The River’:**

(my source tape is missing the beginning of the intro) ”.....and I guess if you turn on your T.V now, you still see it.....and uh.....I guess without living through it sometimes.....when your decision comes around, you may be wondering what to do.....so I guess...I’d like to....dedicate this next song to all young guys out there or young girls....and remind you that blind faith in anything.....your leaders.....in 1985, will get you killed.....it don’t matter.....whether it’s in Central America.....or if you’re a young Iranian or you’re in Iraq or a young Russian in Afganistan.....’cause what I’m talking about here is.....WAR!”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘War’:**

”This is a song about uh.....the, uh.......vicisitutes of love .....is anybody in love out there tonight ? (cheers).....this is like, you know, when you first meet somebody.....you know, everything’s great and you come out dressed up nice all the time......everything they say is brilliant....and like you’re flattering each other all the time.....you know, that’s part of a....courtship, I guess.....you know, the girls.....the girls come over like they´re putting that perfume on all the other places besides behind their ears.......you know, guys, like they’re shaving like extra (?).....I don’t know .....but.....if you’re gonna go out, it’s like ‘Oh honey, uh......what movie do you wanna see ?.....you know it’s like ‘Oh sweetie, I don’t care , whatever you wanna go see..... ‘Honey do you wanna go out tonight ?’...... ‘Oh baby, I don’t care , as long as I’m with you ‘ (cheers)....yeah......oh yeah.....how sweet it is !.....then you come back about a year later - and I’m speaking from personal experience .....you come back about a year later and it’s uh.....’Are we gonna go out tonight or do I have to look at your face all night long ?´ (cheers).....’Did you take a shower today ? ‘ ‘You didn’t take a shower today!’.....(chuckles)....you know.....I don’t know....why does all that happen ....it kinda ends up.....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘I’m Goin’Down’:**

”I’m coming to get you now.....I’m gonna tickle your little totsies....here I go ..... (singalong)....Pavarotti, look out.....boys, take it down.....oh Jeesus, I gotta take a little rest .....I just had my birthday, I’m 36 now.....I was 34 when this tour started.....oh, where has youth gone ?....yeah....man.....36.....I’m glad to get my birthday over, though, you know it’s like.....all day people coming to you and calling you like the Birthday Boy.... ‘Hey, how’s the Birthday Boy?’.....Jeesus....but I had a nice party (chuckles).....oh but I always get an inspiration when I look at the Big Man....Big Man, he’s 44 (cheers).....and like he’s still handsome, he’s maintained his youthful beauty somehow.....he got a deal with the devil or somehow, I don’t know how it is, I don’t know.....and at night like I lay there in bed sometimes and....my back....yeah .....oh yeah.....yeah.....I always sleep with my guitar.....my wife, first she didn’t like it but she’s got used to it now.....uh, yeah..... you gotta take the whole package.... anyway, 36.....I feel handsome tonight.....I’m at my sexual peak tonight. (cheers)..... so....in the end....hey Big Man.....in the end it ain’t nothing but glory days.....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Glory Days’:**

”Yeah....(?) for the young folks.....gonna do one for the old timers out there (chuckles).... so if you’re my age or older......no matter how old you get, you gotta keep searching for the Promised Land....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘The Promised Land’:**

”Thanks, thanks a lot.....yeah.....this is the beginning of our last stand here.....you know.... we’ve been ....we’ve been what seems like almost everywhere this year, I guess..... all across the country....New York, Australia, Japan....we went to.....and it’s a funny thing every place we went.....this happens everywhere, every place we went.....when you mention the name of that place, people cheer....I’ll give it a shot....Los Angeles (cheers).....you see...that works every time....works every time....I got to thinking about it and I guess people cheer when they hear the name of their town because they’re proud of where they come from.....and uh.....if that’s the case, I guess it makes sense that they’d wanna do something.....to make it a better place to live.....and tonight in the audience, we got some representatives .....from the Community Food Resources of Los Angeles.... that’s a foodbank.....and they serve Long Beach.....(?).....Riverside....San Diego.....we got representatives from the Steelworkers Oldtimers Foodbank.....who some of you guys might remember from the last time we were here.....what a foodbank is is a simple thing, every year twenty percent.....of the food that gets produced ends up getting wasted and thrown away....meanwhile in every city and every town.....and every state, there’s people going to bed without enough to eat or without the right kinds of food.....there’s old folks whose social security checks don’t get ‘em through the month.....they gotta decide between buying themselves medicine or food.....there’s folks that been hit hard by unemployment .....there’s single mothers trying to raise families on their own....there’s young kids out there and uh.....it’s a pretty simple thing what these folks need....they need a little help and what a foodbank does is it gets the food that would normally be wasted....and it gets it out to the agencies that serve those people.....uh....so I guess what I’m trying to say is....that these are the folks that are out there every day putting some of the ideas that I’m singing about....up here tonight, to work.....making it real in people’s lives everyday and keep it (?)....a little closer....to that Promised Land.....and without them....without them.....what I’m doing up here tonight doesn´t amount to much more than words.....so....I guess what I’d like you to do is when you go out to the lobby.....get the phonenumber of the foodbank that’s nearest you.....there’ll be nobody collecting out there but if you get that number, give ‘em a call, find out what they’re about....and make Los Angeles and the surrounding area a better place....for all of its citizens to live.... I’d like to.....I´d like to also thank youse....thank youse ‘cause I’ve been talking to the steelworkers out here and they said the response.....when we were here last was really great....they’ve been doing great things, they got a theatre group now made up of....of unemployed steelworkers that are about to.....about to put on their first play.....so if you can, give ‘em a call, find out ‘cause they’re doing a lot of interesting and important things....the Steelworkers Oldtimers Foodbank, give them a ring, find about what’s going on right here in your hometown....Ok ? (cheers)”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘My Hometown’:**

”I can remember growing up.....and my folks working so hard all the time.....I remember my dad always....my bedroom was out over the backyard and every morning he´d lay on....on his back on the cold ground.....trying to get the car started to go to work.....I remember my mom....always going down to the finance man.....borrowing money for Christmas.....getting it paid off just in time....to borrow money for Easter....getting it paid off just in time to buy us....school clothes....for some reason she.....she never (?) bothered....I remember it bothered my dad....and he’d sit at the table at night....like something was dying inside.....I got to feeling like...there was something dying inside of me....and I didn’t know how to keep it alive....laying in bed feeling like I was just gonna.....like I was just gonna....you know if something didn’t happen....that I’d just....that I’d just.....that I´d just......”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘I’m on Fire’:**

”I wanna thank you guys for coming down to the show (chuckles)(cheers).....I wanna say....we had uh.....everytime we’ve been in Los Angeles over the past year, a couple of months, it’s been ....we’ve had a great time here, I met my wife here, yeah (cheers) (chuckles).....and uh so anyway I’d like to do this song for you.....this is uh....about the greatest song that I think has ever been written......written about America.....and what’s so great about it is that it gets right to the heart....of the promise....of what our country was supposed to be about....and as we sit here tonight, that’s a promise that’s eroding..... for many of our fellow citizens....I don’t think if you talk to the..... steelworkers in (?) Valley...or here in East Los Angeles or Gary, Indiana.....there’s a lotta people out there that feel like their country....is sailing away from them and leaving them on the dock..... and I don’t know if they believe this song is true anymore and I´m not sure that it is..... but I know that it oughta be....so....let me do this for you reminding you that with countries, just like with people .....it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away.... and uh.....let me wish you the longest life with the best of absolutely everything.....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘This Land Is Your Land’:**

”Gotta work tomorrow ?....Tomorrow’s Saturday, right ?....so you think you can take us, huh ?....so you think you’re tough here in California , huh ?......so you think you can put the whammy on those little New Jersey boys, huh ?.....Oh yeah ?.....Oh yeah ? ....”
 * 27.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Stand on It’:**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//